"Leave it alone. Will you do that for me?" "I can't." "Here's my last warning. If you go through with this ... if you attack it and fight it, no matter how ... you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Now, for the last time: Will you quit?" "No." "Then you're dead, Lennox. You're dead." CHAPTER VI When I was a kid on the Rock, one of my friends turned racketeer and went into the bicycle-stealing business. He put the heist on six bikes which he hid in the Indian Caves in Isham Park where the Hessian deserters holed up during the Revolutionary War. We used to dig for musket balls and flint arrow heads up there, just a few blocks from the spot where they found a dead-type dinosaur. Anyway, my thief friend was too dumb or too honest to sell the bikes, and the first time he tried to ride one around our neighborhood he got caught with the stolen goods. He made his getaway and hid in the caves until dark. Then he sneaked out to make amends and return the rest of the loot to the rightful owners. This was up at the north end of The Rock where there were still private homes. Nobody could sleep that night for the crash of stolen bikes being thrown over fences into backyards. Likewise, for the next few days nobody in the business could sleep for the crash of Lennox switching from the Bad Guys to the Good Guys. He had a formidable list of antagonists to pacify. He had his Poison Pen Test to spring without creating any additional hostility. Lennox made an exuberant try. If he was villainous at times, as Cooper suggested, he could be heroic when he tried to combat his own villainy. Here are the highlights of his fight. * * * * * He phoned Rox Records, the offices of Suidi, _Le Jazz Hot_, prepared to do battle with the aid of a French dictionary. He was saved by a Bronx speaking secretary. "I think we ought to promote Sam Cooper's hit," Lennox explained. "My idea is a professional party for Sam. A big name party on Wednesday or Thursday. You invite your big wheels. I'll invite ours. I've got a gimmick in mind that might be a natural for publicity. Say you're celebrating the history of song hits ... starting with someone as far back as Handy and bringing it down to Cooper. If you could get enough names there it ought to be worth a double-truck in any magazine." Rox Records admitted that it certainly ought. "I want to finance this myself, but don't let Sam know." They kicked it around enthusiastically and agreed that Lennox would be permitted to finance a cocktail party for Cooper at the studios of Rox Records on West 50th Street Thursday next. * * * * * Lennox hired a network photographer and took him up to Mason's apartment on the west side, which is the unfashionable side of The Rock.